We did much the same as 1956 stated.
A fun project we did combined several objectives. The students wrote letters to relatives requesting a weather report from a newspaper or online. When the letters arrived we placed a marker on that city on a large map. They kids wrote up a short weather report and then did it for the class as a TV reporter.

number11

02-04-2018 09:59 AM

Very interesting. I am planning on doing some map making.

luvtulearn

02-04-2018 09:04 AM

Many people associate spatial sense with geometry but we sometimes forget how relevant it is to geography. Many years ago when I taught second grade we illustrated the layout of the classroom from the perspective of a spider sitting in the the corner of the wall. ( Like Charlotte in Charlotte's Web) We created a layout of the school (outside) and labeled them from a template. We had a city map of roads in plastic sleeves where I drew grids. The students had to identify coordinates of areas of interest as well as directions. Puzzles of the continents, states, and countries help students memorize the configurations of the land pieces too.
I always was fascinated by globes. I thought it strange to only have 1 globe per classroom I think we needed 1 per table when studying geography. Do we even have maps anymore or are they all digital?
Also graphic organizers, curriculum mapping, flow charts, etc. . .help pave the way to understanding of spatial organization and planning. These are all skills involved in geography. As far as lesson in 3rd grade, I drew an arial map of the characters houses in " Fantastic Mr. Fox. " I also traced a map of the island, in " My Father's Dragon." I believed we created a treasure map from another book, too.

Hey 1956BD . . .I bet you used the WEE sing tape songs to go along with the memorization. I couldn't
have done it without them!

Here is an article I found interesting on spatial intelligence and geography. The conclusion ties it in well.
Hope I didn't go off on too much of a tangent.

ConnieWI

01-28-2018 06:02 AM

1956BD wrote this: "We memorized our addresses, city, county, state, country, continent, hemispheres, planet and solar system using concentric circles going from smallest to largest circles."

This info can be made into a wonderful game.

Draw nine concentric circles. Students will also need a ten-sided die. The ones I have are red with white numbers, but I have seen them in other colors. Students will use the numbers one to nine, but not the zero. Label each concentric circle with a number beginning in the middle with one and the continuing outward so the outside circle is number nine.

In the corner of the paper, make a key that looks like this:
1. address/house number and street name
2. city
3. county
4. state
5. country
6. continent
7. hemisphere
8. planet
9. solar system

Student #1 rolls the die. If he/she rolls a four, he/she must tell his/her partner the name of his/her state. If correct, he/she earns an M&M/goldfish cracker. If incorrect, no M&M/goldfish cracker. Play continues back and forth between partners #1 and #2 for a given time period.

One other thing I did was give each child a separate piece of paper so he/she could write the answers to one through nine. This piece of paper was given to the partner so each partner had the other partner's correct answers.

The paper for the partner answering the question was turned upside-down when answering, as some answers are the same for both partners.

Lakeside

01-20-2018 03:18 AM

I love the list 1956BD gave you, especially making connections with other subjects!

I also remember doing a project in school where we each wrote to the Chamber of Commerce of a different state asking for information. I had Rhode Island, and got neat maps and stuff.

I had my third graders memorize the 7 continents, learn to spell them correctly and label a world map correctly. Oceans as well.

I had mine memorize our home state with all bordering states as well.

We memorized our addresses, city, county, state, country, continent, hemispheres, planet and solar system using concentric circles going from smallest to largest circles.

We looked at borders and discussed if they followed a river or group of mountains or if it was just an arbitrary line drawn for political reasons.

I made power points to help. They did puzzles. We watched Brain Pop junior videos. We colored maps. I pulled down maps often during class to show where a character in a book lived or maybe where a scientist was from that we read about in science. It is important to make those connections geographically.

We learned the cardinal directions as well as the intermediate directions and labeled a compass rose.

We learned how to use maps to find information. I had a class set of state maps that we practiced and learned with.

number11

01-18-2018 02:13 AM

For anyone who teaches geography: what type of project do you assign? I've done flat Stanley in the past and I've also had the kids map where their fruit and vegetables came from. Any cool ideas you recommend? Thanks!